Description
A reflective diagram for ethical action, relational awareness, and manifesting beauty in the world.
The first in my “cosmology” series. This is a visual and contemplative map designed to support people who are navigating complexity – in their inner lives, relationships, community work, land-based practice, or systems change – and who want to act with care, consent, and accountability, rather than bypass, force, or certainty. In my cosmology series, this represents “how to be”.
At its heart, the diagram is a tool for awareness and reflection. It helps you sense how intention, attention, and action move between your inner world and the wider field of co-creation, relationship and rapport with land, community, systems, and the more-than-human world.
It has been designed to be:
- a relational ethics compass
- a way to stay oriented in complexity
- a practice for manifesting beauty without bypassing responsibility
- a map for noticing where context, humility, or consent are not present, and where and how to restore connection
It can be used for:
- personal reflection or journaling
- group dialogue or facilitation
- land or nature-connection practice
- ethical decision-making and action
- shadow work and relational repair
- ceremony, meditation, or slow inquiry
What’s included
This downloadable PDF contains a multi-layered circular diagram that maps:
- Inner capacities (emotion, intuition, embodiment, attention, thought)
- Energetic hygiene (grounding, attunement, protection, clearing)
- Relational ethics (connection, discernment, responsibility, ownership)
- Consent & reciprocity dynamics (give/receive, offer/permission, witness/guidance, reverence/communion)
- States of flow and contraction (grace and shadow)
- Outer awareness & context, including: local land and community systemic and historical forces ecological, mythic, and cosmic contexts
The PDF also includes:
- A shadow mirror of the diagram, showing how relationship collapses into patterns such as coercion, extraction, bypass, fixation, and disconnection – not as judgement, but as information for awareness.
- A blank diagram, for you to fill in with your own words to allow the language and usage of the diagram to evolve with your relationship.
- A how to use page, which explains ways it could be used and the deeper thinking behind the diagram.
How to use it
This diagram is offered as a reflective and relational tool, not as doctrine, authority, or universal framework. It is not a technique for “manifesting outcomes”. Users are encouraged to adapt it with care, to stay accountable to their own contexts, and to remain in relationship with land, community, and consequence. There is no right way to use it. Its function is to support awareness, not replace your judgement or relationship with place.
It can be used for meditation, journalling, relational reflection, and ecological attunement. You might use it to:
- sit with one section at a time and journal
- bring a current situation into the diagram and notice where tension or flow appears
- use it as a shared language in groups or circles
- return to it seasonally or when something feels “stuck”
Credits, Lineage & Acknowledgements
The diagram is influenced by systems thinking, land-based practice, relational ethics, and ecological worldviews, and is designed to remain open, adaptable, and non-prescriptive. Please go to my acknowledgements page to see who may have inspired me.
Direct influences on this diagram include:
- Patrick McManaway & Brid Walsh – who work with subtle energies and emphasise responsibility, humility, and care over extraction or control. The “State of Grace” layer is the one that has come from their wisdom and practice.
- Vanessa Machado de Oliveira – for work on complexity, non-bypassing ethics, humility, and the limits of certainty in times of planetary crisis.